Hindenburg Disaster | Video | C-SPAN.org Supreme Court May 6, 1937 Hindenburg Disaster This year marks the 75th Anniversary of the Hindenburg disaster, when on May 6th, 1937 the Zeppelin caught fire while docking at the… read more Hindenburg Disaster This year marks the 75th Anniversary of the Hindenburg disaster, when on May 6th, 1937 the Zeppelin caught fire while docking at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey. 35 people on the airship were killed as well as one member of the ground crew. The Hindenburg was the first airship to regularly fly passengers between Europe and the United States. Next is a five minute Universal Newsreel about the accident. close Transcript type *This transcript was compiled from uncorrected Closed Captioning.

Hosting Organization 1000+ images about The Hindenburg on Pinterest | New jersey, Flight schedule and Daily news May 6, 1937: German airship "Hindenburg", the largest dirigible ever built, explodes as it arrives in Lakehurst, New Jersey See More The Hindenburg Disaster | Airships.net Search for: The Hindenburg Disaster The Hindenburg disaster at Lakehurst, New Jersey on May 6, 1937 brought an end to the age of the rigid airship. The disaster killed 35 persons on the airship, and one member of the ground crew, but miraculously 62 of the 97 passengers and crew survived . After more than 30 years of passenger travel on commercial zeppelins — in which tens of thousands of passengers flew over a million miles, on more than 2,000 flights, without a single injury — the era of the passenger airship came to an end in a few fiery minutes. The Last Word in Speed and Luxury Hindenburg was the last passenger aircraft of the world’s first airline — her chief steward was the first flight attendant in history — and she was the fastest way to cross the Atlantic in her day.

Hindenburg’s passengers could travel from Europe to North and South America in half the time of the fastest ocean liner, and they traveled in luxurious interiors that would never again be matched in the air; they enjoyed meals in an elegant dining room, listened to an aluminum piano in a modern lounge, slept in comfortable cabins, and could even have a cigarette or cigar in the ship’s smoking room . Hindenburg’s Dining Room All that came to an end in 32 seconds because above the elegant passenger quarters were 7 million cubic feet of hydrogen gas. The Cause of the Disaster, in Brief Almost 80 years of research and scientific tests support the same conclusion reached by the original German and American accident investigations in 1937: It seems clear that the Hindenburg disaster was caused by an electrostatic discharge (i.e., a spark) that ignited leaking hydrogen .

The spark was most likely caused by a difference in electric potential between the airship and the surrounding air: The airship was approximately 60 meters (about 200 feet) above the airfield in an electrically charged atmosphere, but the ship’s metal framework was grounded by its landing line; the difference in electric potential likely caused a spark to jump from the ship’s fabric covering (which had the ability to hold a charge) to the ship’s framework (which was grounded through the landing line). A somewhat less likely but still plausible theory attributes the spark to coronal discharge, more commonly known as St. Elmo’s Fire. The cause of the hydrogen leak is more of a mystery, but we know the ship experienced a significant leakage of hydrogen before the disaster. No evidence of sabotage was ever found, and no convincing theory of sabotaged has ever been advanced. One thing is clear: the disaster had nothing to do with the zeppelin’s fabric covering . Hindenburg was just one of many hydrogen airships destroyed by fire because of their flammable lifting gas, and suggestions about the alleged flammability of the ship’s outer covering have been repeatedly debunked.

The simple truth is that Hindenburg was destroyed in 32 seconds because it was inflated with hydrogen . The Last Flight of the Hindenburg Hindenburg began its last flight on May 3, 1937, carrying 36 passengers and 61 officers, crew members, and trainees . It was the airship’s 63rd flight . The ship left the Frankfurt airfield at 7:16 PM and flew over Cologne, and then crossed the Netherlands before following the English Channel past the chalky cliffs of Beachy Head in southern England, and then heading out over the Atlantic shortly after 2:00 AM the next day. Hindenburg at the Frankfurt airfield in 1936 Hindenburg followed a northern track across the ocean [view chart ], passing the southern tip of Greenland and crossing the North American coast at Newfoundland. Headwinds delayed the airship’s passage across the Atlantic, and the Lakehurst arrival, which had been scheduled for 6:00 AM on May 6th, was postponed to 6:00 PM.

By noon on May 6th the ship had reached Boston, and by 3:00 PM Hindenburg was over the skyscrapers of Manhattan in New York City (view photograph ). New York City beneath Hindenburg (photo from engine car) The ship flew south from New York and arrived at the Naval Air Station at Lakehurst, New Jersey at around 4:15 PM, but the poor weather conditions at the field concerned the Hindenburg’s commander, Captain Max Pruss , and also Lakehurst’s commanding officer, Charles Rosendahl , who sent a message to the ship recommending a delay in landing until conditions improved. Captain Pruss departed the Lakehurst area and took his ship over the beaches and coast of New Jersey to wait out the storm.

By 6:00 PM conditions had improved; at 6:12 Rosendahl sent Pruss a message relaying temperature, pressure, visibility, and winds which Rosendahl considered “suitable for landing.” At 6:22 Rosendahl radioed Pruss “Recommend landing now,” and at 7:08 Rosendahl sent a message to the ship strongly recommending the “earliest possible landing.” Hindenburg flying over Princeton University on May 6, 1937, in a photograph taken by Princeton student Thornton Gerrish ’37 from his dorm room in Pyne Hall. (Photo reprinted with kind permission of Haden and Campbell Gerrish, who retain all rights.) The Landing Approach Hindenburg approached the field at Lakehurst from the southwest shortly after 7:00 PM at an altitude of approximately 600 feet. Since the wind was from the east, after passing over the field to observe conditions on the ground, Captain Pruss initiated a wide left turn to fly a descending oval pattern around the north and west of the field, to line up for a landing into the wind to the east. Hindenburg landing approach (from U.S.

Commerce Department report) While Captain Pruss (who was directing the ship’s heading and engine power settings) brought Hindenburg around the field, First Officer Albert Sammt (who was responsible for the ship’s trim and altitude, assisted by Watch Officer Walter Ziegler at the gas board and Second Officer Heinrich Bauer at the ballast board), valved 15 seconds of hydrogen along the length of the ship to reduce Hindenburg’s buoyancy in preparation for landing. The gas board used to valve hydrogen to keep the ship in trim. As Pruss continued the slow left turn of the oval landing pattern, reducing, and then reversing, the power from the engines, Sammt noticed that the ship was heavy in the tail and valved hydrogen from cells 11-16 (in the bow) for a total of 30 seconds, to reduce the buoyancy of the bow and keep the ship in level trim. When this failed to level the ship, Sammt ordered three drops of water ballast, totaling 1,100 kg (2,420lbs), from Ring 77 in the tail, and then valved an additional 5 seconds of hydrogen from the forward gas cells.

When even these measures could not keep the ship in level trim, six crewmen were ordered to go forward to add their weight to the bow. (That Captain Pruss personally directed the ship’s heading and power settings during the landing evolution was an exception to the usual German operating procedure . Typically, during the landing of Hindenburg or Graf Zeppelin, the rudder and power were under the direction of one senior watch officer, while the elevators, ballast, and gas were under the direction of another senior watch officer; the ship’s captain observed all operations, but only intervened in the case of difficulty or disagreement with the actions of his officers. The German procedure was noted frequently by American naval observers, perhaps because it differed so greatly from the practice followed by the United States Navy. During Hindenburg’s final landing maneuver, however, Captain Pruss personally directed the rudder and power, while Albert Sammt directed the elevators, ballast, and gas.

Perhaps Pruss was simply used to this arrangement from his time as a watch officer, or perhaps a re-ordering of roles occurred because of the presence of senior captain and DZR flight director Ernst Lehmann on the bridge, but as far as this author knows, Captain Pruss never commented on the matter publicly, nor did Pruss ever try to evade his responsibility as commander by suggesting that Captain Lehmann was in actual operational control at the time of the accident.) Captain Albert Sammt While Sammt was working to keep the ship in trim, the wind shifted direction from the east to the southwest. Captain Pruss now needed to land into the wind on a southwestly heading, rather than the easterly heading he had originally intended when he planned his oval landing pattern. Hindenburg was now close to the landing area, however, and did not have a lot of room to maneuver before reaching the mooring mast. Anxious to land quickly, before weather conditions could deteriorate, Captain Pruss decided to execute a tight S-turn to change the direction of the ship’s landing; Pruss ordered a turn to port to swing out, and then a sharp tight turn to starboard to line up for landing into the wind.

(Some experts would later theorize that this sharp turn overstressed the ship, causing a bracing wire to snap and slash a gas cell, allowing hydrogen to mix with air to form a highly explosive combination.) After the S-turn to change the direction of landing, Pruss continued his approach to the mooring mast, adjusting power from the two forward and two rear engines, and at 7:21, with the ship about 180 feet above the ground, the forward landing ropes were dropped. The Fire A few minutes after the landing lines were dropped, R.H. Ward, in charge of the port bow landing party, noticed what he described as a wave-like fluttering of the outer cover on the port side, between frames 62 and 77, which contained gas cell number 5 . He testified at the Commerce Department inquiry that it appeared to him as if gas were pushing against the cover, having escaped from a gas cell. Ground crew member R.W. Antrim, who was at the top of the mooring mast, also testified that he saw that the covering behind the rear port engine fluttering. At 7:25 PM, the first visible external flames appeared.

Reports vary, but most witnesses saw the first flames either at the top of the hull just forward of the vertical fin (near the ventilation shaft between cells 4 and 5) or between the rear port engine and the port fin (in the area of gas cells 4 and 5, where Ward and Antrim had seen the fluttering). (click to enlarge) For example, Lakehurst commander Rosendahl described a “mushroom shaped flower” of flame bursting into bloom in front of the upper fin. Navy Lt. Benjamin May, the assistant mooring officer, who was atop the mooring mast, testified that an area just behind the rear port engine (where Ward and Antrim reported the fluttering) “seemed to collapse,” after which he saw streaks of flame followed by a muffled explosion, and then the entire tail was engulfed by flame. Navy ground crew member William Bishop described seeing flames “inside” the ship a little above and aft of the rear port engine car. Location of helmsmen Helmut Lau at the time of the explosion. Several witnesses inside the ship also saw the beginning of the fire.

Helmsman Helmut Lau, who was stationed at the auxiliary control stand in the lower fin, heard “a muffled detonation and looked up and saw from the starboard side down inside the gas cell a bright reflection on the front bulkhead of cell No. 4.” Lau described the flames he saw at cell 4 at the inquiry: “The bright reflection in the cell was inside. I saw it through the cell. It was at first red and yellow and there was smoke in it. The cell did not burst on the lower side. The cell suddenly disappeared by the heat…. The fire proceeded further down and then it got air. The flame became very bright and the fire rose up to the side, more to the starboard side, as I remember seeing it, and I saw that with the flame aluminum parts and fabric parts were thrown up. In that same moment the forward cell and the back cell of cell 4 also caught fire [cell 3 and cell 5]. At that time parts of girders, molten aluminum and fabric parts started to tumble down from the top.

The whole thing only lasted a fraction of a second.” The fire quickly spread and soon engulfed the tail of the ship, but the ship remained level for a few more seconds before the tail began to sink and the nose pointed upward to the sky, with a blowtorch of flame erupting from the bow where twelve crew members were stationed, including the six who were sent forward to keep ship in trim. In the port and starboard promenades on the passenger decks, where many of the passengers and some of the crew had gathered to watch the landing, the rapidly increasing angle of the ship caused passengers and crew to tumble against the walls, the furniture, and each other; passenger Margaret Mather recalled being hurled 15-20 feet against the rear wall of the dining room and being pinned against a bench by several other people. Survival and Death The fire spread so quickly — consuming the ship in less than a minute — that survival was largely a matter of where one happened to be located when the fire broke out.

Passengers and crew members began jumping out the promenade windows to escape the burning ship, and most of the passengers and all of the crew who were in the public rooms on A Deck at the time of the fire — close to the promenade windows — did survive. Those who were deeper inside the ship, in the passenger cabins at the center of the decks or the crew spaces along the keel, generally died in the fire. One passenger, John Pannes (the New York manager for the Hamburg-America Line, which handled passenger reservations for the Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei), was in the dining room when the fire broke out; encouraged to jump by ship’s photographer Karl Otto Clemens, who escaped through one of the windows and survived, Pannes instead left the dining room to find his wife Emma, who had returned to their cabin for her coat. Both died in the fire. Mr and Mrs Hermann Doehner and their three children (Irene, 16; Walter 10; and Werner, 8 ) were also in the dining room watching the landing, but Mr Doehner left before the fire broke out.

Mrs Doehner and her two young sons jumped to safety, but Irene left the dining room in search of her father, and both died as a result of the crash. Given the speed with which Hindenburg burned, survival for the crew was also largely a matter of luck. As the diagram below illustrates, those who were close to a means of exit at the time of the fire generally survived, including 9 of the 11 men in the engine cars, and 10 of the 12 men in the control car. Those who were deep inside the ship, such as the electricians in the power room along the keel, or Max Schulze in the smoking room bar on B Deck, or those on the starboard side (since the flaming ship rolled slightly to starboard as it hit the ground) were generally trapped in the wreck. And the men stationed in the bow — who were exposed to the column of flame that rose through the ship as the bow pointed skyward — had the least chance; the 9 men who were closest to the front of the ship at the time of the fire all died. Location of officers and crew at time of fire; those killed are in red, those who survived are in green.

(click to enlarge) As the ship settled to the ground, less than 30 seconds after the first flames were observed, those who had jumped from the burning craft scrambled for safety, as did members of the ground crew who had been positioned on the field below the ship. Natural instinct caused those on the ground to run from the burning wreck as fast as they could, but Chief Petty Officer Frederick J. “Bull” Tobin, a longtime airship veteran and an enlisted airship pilot who was in charge of the Navy landing party, cried out to his sailors: “Navy men, Stand fast!!” Bull Tobin had survived the crash of USS Shenandoah, and he was not about to abandon those in peril on an airship, even if it meant his own life. And his sailors agreed. Films of the disaster (see below) clearly show sailors turning and running back toward the burning ship to rescue survivors; those films are a permanent tribute to the courage of the sailors at Lakehurst that day. The Final Toll Hindenburg left Frankfurt with 97 souls onboard; 62 survived the crash at Lakehurst, although many suffered serious injuries.

Thirteen of the 36 passengers , and twenty-two of the 61 crew , died as a result of the crash, along with one member of the civilian landing party (Allen Hagaman). The End of the Airship Era The public seemed remarkably forgiving of the accident-prone zeppelin prior to the Hindenburg disaster, and the glamorous and speedy Hindenburg was greeted with public enthusiasm despite a long list of previous airship accidents. But while airships like USS Akron (on which 73 died) crashed at sea, and the British R-101 (on which 48 were killed) crashed in the darkness of night — both far from witnesses or cameras — the crash of the Hindenburg was captured on film. Millions of people around the world saw the dramatic inferno which consumed the ship and its passengers. Oh, the Humanity! At least, that’s the conventional wisdom about why the age of the zeppelin died that rainy day at Lakehurst.

But perhaps after 35 years of accidents and disasters — the crashes of LZ-4, LZ-5, Deutschland, Deutschland II, Schwaben, R-38, R-101, Shenandoah, Akron, Macon, and the list goes on — perhaps the public had just had enough. And more importantly, despite its romance and grandeur, Hindenburg was obsolete before it ever flew. On November 22, 1935 — three months before Hindenburg first took to the air — Pan American Airways’ M-130 China Clipper made the first scheduled flight across the Pacific . The M-130 could have crossed the Atlantic with ease; its 2,400-mile route San Francisco to Honolulu was longer than distance required to cross the North Atlantic. In fact, Pan Am’s M-130 was designed for the Atlantic, and it was only political (not technological) considerations that prevented Pan Am from inaugurating transatlantic airline service in 1935; the British refused to grant Pan Am landing rights until Britain had a plane that could make the same flight, but Britain was far behind America in the development of a long-distance airliner.

Between the cost of its infrastructure and crew, inherent safety issues, and the development of better technology, the rigid passenger airship was doomed long before Hindenburg landed at Lakehurst that fateful day in May. Airships.net author Dan Grossman at the site of the Hindenburg crash More information about the Disaster: Hindenburg Airship Explodes | World History Project May 6 1937 Hindenburg Airship Explodes The Hindenburg disaster took place on May 6, 1937 as the German rigid airship Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed within one minute while attempting to dock with its mooring mast at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station which is located adjacent to the Borough of Lakehurst in Manchester Township, New Jersey. Of the 97 people on board, 35 people died in addition to one fatality on the ground. The disaster was the subject of spectacular newsreel coverage, photographs, and Herbert Morrison's recorded radio eyewitness report from the landing field, which was broadcast the next day. The actual cause of the fire remains unknown, although a variety of theories have been put forward for both the cause of ignition and the initial fuel for the ensuing fire.

The accident served to shatter public confidence, and marked the end of the giant, passenger carrying rigid airships Source: Wikipedia Added by: bob armour “ Source: Wikipedia Added by: Brian Hand It's practically standing still now. They've dropped ropes out of the nose of the ship; and (uh) they've been taken ahold of down on the field by a number of men. It's starting to rain again; it's—the rain had (uh) slacked up a little bit. The back motors of the ship are just holding it (uh) just enough to keep it from— It's burst into flames! It burst into flames, and it's falling, it's crashing! Watch it! Watch it! Get out of the way! Get out of the way! Get this, Charlie; get this, Charlie! It's fire—and it's crashing! It's crashing terrible! Oh, my! Get out of the way, please! It's burning and bursting into flames; and the—and it's falling on the mooring-mast. And all the folks agree that this is terrible; this is the one of the worst catastrophes in the world. [indecipherable] its flames... Crashing, oh!

Four- or five-hundred feet into the sky and it—it's a terrific crash, ladies and gentlemen. It's smoke, and it's in flames now; and the frame is crashing to the ground, not quite to the mooring-mast. Oh, the humanity! and all the passengers screaming around here. I told you; it—I can't even talk to people Their friends are out there! Ah! It's—it—it's a—ah! I—I can't talk, ladies and gentlemen. Honest: it's just laying there, mass of smoking wreckage. Ah! And everybody can hardly breathe and talk and the screaming. Lady, I—I—I'm sorry. Honest: I—I can hardly breathe. I—I'm going to step inside, where I cannot see it. Charlie, that's terrible. Ah, ah;—I can't. Listen, folks; I—I'm gonna have to stop for a minute because [indecipherable] I've lost my voice. This is the worst thing I've ever witnessed. – Herbert Morrison, describing the events, as broadcasted to WLS radio.

Cross Brace from the LZ 129 Hindenburg | Warehouse 13 Artifact Database Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Cross Brace from the LZ 129 Hindenburg 3,932pages on Cross Brace from the LZ 129 Hindenburg Origin Grants the user the ability to fly Downsides Flying for too long will cause the user to spontaneously combust and crash back down to Earth Activation [Source] Origin The LZ 129 Hindenburg was a German passenger airship manufactured from 1931-1936 by Luftschiffbau Zeppelin. It flew for just over a year before it caught fire and was destroyed on May 6th, 1937 in an event that was known as the Hindenburg Disaster. There were 36 fatalities in total, 13 passengers, 22 crewman and 1 ground worker. It is notable in that the cause of the fire was never established, despite several hypothesises being put forward. The event is generally assumed to be the catalyst for the ending of the airship era. Effects Edit Holding the brace will grant the user the ability to fly as long as they retain a firm grasp on it.

Releasing it during flight will cause the user to immediately drop. However, holding it and flying for an extended period of time will cause the user to spontaneously combust and lose their flying abilities, causing them to drop back down to Earth in a ball of flame, leaving nothing but a charred corpse. Collection Edit In 2014, the cross brace was stolen from the Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen in Friedrichshafen, Germany. Not long following the robbery, several citizens noted a human-like figure flying over the city, alerting the Warehouse 13 agents to the situation. During the trip from the US to Germany, a charred corpse was found after a great ball of fire fell from the sky. The artifact was snagged after a short investigation in the city. The UnMuseum - Hindenburg E-mail this page link to a friend Enter friend's e-mail: Requires javascript This print shows the Hindenburg in flames above Lakehurst Naval Air Station on May 6th, 1937. (The National Archives) The Mystery of the Hindenburg Disaster It was the largest airship ever built; over eight-hundred feet long from its nose to its massive tail fins.

It was the height of luxury travel and in the course of two seasons carried over 2,656 people across the Atlantic between Germany to New York and Rio de Janeiro. It was called the Hindenburg and the space of 37 seconds this mighty zeppelin was destroyed in a fire that killed a third of its crew and passengers and left spectators crying in horror. What caused this catastrophe? Was it negligence, sabotage, or as Hitler called it, "An act of God"? The Dirigible The first successful dirigible (a balloon that has engines to control its horizontal movement) was built in France in 1852. Although other countries built these types of airships, the Germans quickly became the most advanced builders of this form of lighter-than-air technology. Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, a German businessman, built a fleet of experimental dirigibles. The type of airships Zeppelin built were spindle-shaped with a rigid internal steel structure (unlike the flexible bodied blimps common today). Inside the craft were large bags filled with gas that gave the ship its lift, as well as catwalks to allow the crew to move back and forth inside the hull to service the airship.

Beneath the craft was a gondola which carried the crew and passengers. By 1911 Zeppelin's airship LZ-10 (also known as the Schwaben) was in passenger service and would go onto make 218 flights carrying 1,553 passengers. Zeppelin became so well-known for this type of dirigible that his name soon became synonymous with that type of airship. Starting in 1914, the beginning of WWI, the Count's zeppelins were used to drop bombs on cities in a number of European countries. They made over fifty raids on London alone, dropping nearly 200 tons of explosives. As the war progressed, however, most of the German's zeppelin fleet was destroyed by British guns or aircraft. The gas that gave them their lift, hydrogen, was very flammable, and even a small bomb hitting a zeppelin could reduce it to ashes in just a few minutes. The LZ7, one of Count Zeppelin's early ships (also known as the Deutschland), can be considered the first true passenger aircraft. It first flew on October 19th, 1910. After the war Germany again began building large airships.

As part of war reparations the Germans built the ZR-3 Los Angeles for the U.S. Navy. In 1928 the Zeppelin Company built what was the most successful passenger dirigible of all time, the Graf Zeppelin. The Graf Zeppelin was a hundred feet longer than any other airship ever built and stretched 776 feet from nose to tail fins. It was designed as a passenger liner to compete with the ocean liners crossing the Atlantic. With a maximum speed of 80 miles per hour, it cut the time it took to make the trip by more than two-thirds. The passenger cabin was outfitted with drapes and thick carpeting. Dinner was made by professional chefs and was served using silverware, crystal and fine china. Time magazine declared, "Certainly for trans-oceanic trips, the airship is the thing." Constructing The Hindenburg The Graf Zeppelin was so successful that the Zeppelin Company planned a new airship. One that would be bigger, faster and carry more passengers with more luxurious amenities. It would be named after a national hero who had been elected Germany's president in 1925. It would be called the Hindenburg.

The Hindenburg was not only longer than the Graf Zeppelin, it was an extra 35 feet wide. This meant it had nearly twice the volume for lifting gas (7,062,000 cubic feet) than the Graf Zeppelin. There was a reason for this. The Hindenburg's designers had decided to fill the new dirigible with helium gas, not hydrogen. Helium, unlike hydrogen, does not burn, making it safer. However, it doesn't produce as much lift as hydrogen, so the extra volume the Hindenburg had for gas was an important feature. The Hindenburg never got its helium, though. At that time helium was difficult to produce and the United States had a monopoly on the manufacture of it. When the Americans saw that Hitler was in power in Germany, they feared he would use the gas for military purposes and therefore would not sell the Germans the helium necessary to fill the Hindenburg. The Zeppelin Company was forced to redesign the ship for hydrogen and make changes to minimize the possibility of fire. The frame of the Hindenburg under construction.

(Credit: Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1986-127-05 / CC-BY-SA) Though it might seem strange to us today, back then the airship seemed to be the wave of the future in travel. At that time crossing the Atlantic in an airplane was risky business. Planes could travel only short distances carrying a minimum of weight and required constant refueling. To many the zeppelins was the natural successor to the ocean liner. The Zeppelin Company planned that the Hindenburg would be the first of a fleet of airships plying the skies of the world. Even today the Hindenburg remains the largest aircraft ever flown. Some of the smaller, modern advertising blimps have a total length only slightly larger than the girth of the Hindenburg. If the Hindenburg stood on end it would dwarf the Washington Monument. It could lift 112 tons beyond its own weight, an incredible amount for that time. Passengers enjoyed staterooms with private showers. The dining room served the finest food on blue and gold porcelain place settings. The ship provided the passengers a spectacular view along its windowed 200-foot-long promenade deck.

One restriction the ship had though was smoking. Because of the hydrogen, smoking was permitted only in a special fireproof room. Final Flight A one-way trip across the Atlantic cost $400 and took only two days. Flights began in 1936 with the airship making a total of six trips to Rio de Janeiro and ten trips to New York City carrying a total of 2,656 passengers. In 1937 it made a trip to Rio then returned to Germany. On May 3rd, 1937, the Zeppelin departed Frankfurt for North America carrying 97 people. It would be the first trip to New York City that season. The trip went smoothly and by 11:40 A.M. on May 6th the airship was passing over Boston. Landing at the Naval Air Station in Lakehurst was delayed due to bad weather, so the ship's captain, Commander Max Pruss, decided to linger over New York City, giving his passengers spectacular views of the Empire State Building, the Bronx, Harlem, Central Park, the Battery, Times Square, the Statue of Liberty and Ebbets Field (where a game was being played between the Dodgers and the Pittsburgh Pirates).

At 4 P.M. the Hindenburg arrived over Lakehurst, but the weather was still worrisome. Commander Pruss decided to take the ship southeast until he hit shore, then north to Asbury Park, then finally inland back to Lakehurst. At 6:12 Charles E. Rosendahl, Commanding Officer of the Lakehurst N.A.S., sent a message to the Hindenburg: "Conditions now considered suitable for landing." Eleven minutes later a stronger message followed: "Recommend landing now." The lounge of the Hindenburg allowed the passengers to watch the view below. The Landing It was almost a half hour later, at 7:00 P.M., that the Hindenburg started its landing. It circled the base, dropping its altitude from 600 to 300 feet and aligned itself so it was headed into the wind. As it approached the mooring mast, Captain Pruss realized he was going a little too fast. Also the wind was changing direction. Given that he was already late, he decided not to do a complete go around, but slow the ship and change his approach by making a sharp "S" turn, first left, then right.

To further complicate things for the captain, the airship was losing trim. The tail section was dropping. This was not particularly odd as it had been raining the water tended to cling more to the rear of the ship than the front, making it heavier. Puss ordered some ballast dropped and six crewmen were sent scurrying to the bow of the dirigible to balance it. The turn worked and the zeppelin's nose finally faced the mooring mast where it would be secured. As the Hindenburg got within 700 feet of the mast, the engines were reversed, bringing the ship to a stop. Ropes were dropped to allow the ground crew to tow the ship into position. At this point the Zeppelin was hanging about 275 off the ground. It was 7:25 P.M.. On the ground a radio reporter named Herbert Morrison was covering the airship's arrival and his comments were recorded for prosperity: ...It's practically standing still now. They've dropped ropes out of the nose of the ship, and it's been taken a hold of down on the field by a number of men. It's starting to rain again; the rain had slacked up a little bit.

The back motors of the ship are just holding it, just enough to keep it from --" "It burst into flames! ... It's fire and it's crashing! It's crashing terrible! Oh, my! Get out of the way, please! It's burning, bursting into flames and is falling on the mooring mast, and all the folks agree that this is terrible. This is the worst of the worst catastrophes in the world! ...There's smoke, and there's flames, now, and the frame is crashing to the ground, not quite to the mooring mast...Oh, the humanity, and all the passengers screaming around here! The flames were first visible towards the tail of the ship, then within seconds the hydrogen in the gas bags caught on and the whole aft of the craft was engulfed in a mass of flame and smoke that towered hundreds of feet into the sky. As the hydrogen in the rear of the ship burned, the rear of the Hindenburg lost its lift and fell to the ground and its nose pointed upwards at a forty-five degree angle. Then as the flames raced through to the bow, it also fell.

In just 37 seconds since the first flames were spotted the ship lay on the ground, the skeleton of its framework the only thing visible through the fire. Passengers jumped from windows and ran for safety. One cabin boy had his life saved when a water tank burst above his head. Of the 97 people on board, miraculously 62 managed to escape with their lives, including the ship's captain. An investigation into the cause of the disaster was made both by the United States and the German governments. They concluded a hydrogen leak was ignited by a spark of static electricity. Both governments wanted to close the book on the disaster. The Americans were anxious to avoid an international incident and the Germans were embarrassed that the cause might have been a design flaw in the ship or the result of foul play. The Gas Leak Theory Some theories suggest that Commander Pruss's final turns to land were too sharp and they caused a support wire to snap inside the ship tearing open one of the hydrogen gas cells. The leaking gas then might have been set off by a rare, natural electrical phenomenon known was St. Elmo's fire. St. Elmo's fire is usually seen as a static electric charge around high objects (like church steeples) during stormy weather.

Given the weather on that day, it is very likely that the ship was carrying a static electric charge. Just before the fire broke out, witnesses saw a fluttering movement of the ship's skin near the rear of the vessel. Some people argue this was caused by escaping gas. Other witnesses noticed a blue glow around the rear of the vessel that might have been St. Elmo's fire. If the gas escaped out a ventilation shaft and met the static electric discharge, it might well have triggered the fire. The Lightning Theory Instead of st. Elmo's Fire, lightning is sometimes blamed as the cause of the fire. However, the Hindenburg had been struck several times before by lightning with no damage. If lightning was the cause of the disaster, it seems it must have been coupled with a gas leak, as with the above theory. However, no witnesses saw lightning strike the ship and there were no known thunderstorms in the immediate area. Diesel Theory This theory suggests that the diesel fuel used to power the engines may have started the fire. A leak from a malfunctioning fuel pump might have ignited if the fuel reached a hot surface like the engine block. The pods where the engines were housed, however, were not by all accounts the location where the fire started.

Initially engineers suspected that sparks from a backfiring engine might have ignited hydrogen from a leak, but tests showed that these type of sparks were not actually hot enough to have set the gas on fire. The Flammable Skin Theory A theory suggested by Addison Bain, former manager of NASA's hydrogen program, was that the initial fire was not caused by burning hydrogen. Hydrogen burns without much of a visible flame, but witnesses described the fire as extremely colorful. Bain thinks the doping solution used to stretch and waterproof the hull was responsible. The compound, a layer of iron oxide covered with coats of cellulose butyrate acetate mixed with powdered aluminum, is very similar to a mixture used to power solid fuel rockets. "The Hindenburg was literally painted with rocket fuel," says Bain. Bain suspects that the Germans figured out the real cause, though they didn't want to admit they'd made such a dangerous mistake. The doping solution used on the Graf Zeppelin II, completed after the Hindenburg disaster, was changed to include a fireproofing agent and the aluminum was replaced with bronze which is less combustible. Bain thinks the fire was started by a build-up of static charge from the storm on the craft's surface and frame.

When the mooring ropes (wet from the storm) were dropped to the ground, the frame discharged, creating an electrical differential between the frame and covering which started the fire. The remains of the Hindenburg on the ground just minutes after the first flames appeared. Tests have been run with remains of the covering, however, that show that although it is flammable , it doesn't burn with the speed needed to explain the rapid expansion of the fire through the whole ship. If the fire did start with the skin, it seems it must have ignited the hydrogen cells almost immediately. The Sabotage Theory Some of the crew that survived, including Commander Pruss, suspected the fire was sabotage. The Hindenburg was more than just a German airship. It was a symbol of German power and technical prowess. Hitler's government, which had helped pay for the Hindenburg's construction, had employed it for such jobs as making propaganda appearances over the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Each of the huge tail fins of the Hindenburg wore the swastika emblem, the symbol of Hitler's Nazi party. Officials had been concerned even before the ship reached New York that someone opposing Hitler might make a terrorist attack upon the craft.

If a saboteur was at work, it must have been one of the crew or passengers. If so, that person may have placed a time bomb along one of the ship's internal catwalks. Most likely it detonated prematurely, or the saboteur did not count on the craft being so late at arriving and could not return to the bomb to reset the timing mechanism. Either way the saboteur may have died in the resulting explosion. A bomb placed near the rear of the craft might have explained the initial flare forward of the tail fin as reported by witnesses as flames from the explosion shot up the gas ventilation shaft to burst out the top of its hood. The initial explosion would have ruptured the hydrogen gas cells, causing a more powerful second explosion that destroyed the craft. Suspicion for the sabotage initially fell upon Joseph Spah, a passenger who survived. On several occasions Spah, a New Jersey resident, had gone unescorted into the cargo area of the ship to visit his dog that he was bringing home to his children. This might have given him the opportunity to place a bomb. Later, others suspected that Erich Spehl, an introverted crewman who perished in the fire, might have been the saboteur.

Spehl was thought to have had anti-Nazi leanings. The Hindenburg was nearly the size of the Titanic. There is no proof against either of these gentlemen and in a search of the wreckage no parts of a bomb were found. Any time bomb would require a timer mechanism which probably would have survived the explosion. End of An Era Today, the official results of the investigation that static electricity set off leaking hydrogen still stand, despite the various theories. One thing is for sure, though, the destruction of the Hindenburg signaled the end of the great zeppelin passenger liners. No zeppelin ever carried another passenger after the Hindenburg disaster. The Graf Zeppelin II which was to be the Hindenburg's sister ship, never entered passenger service. At the start of W.W.II, it was brought into military service for a short time, then dismantled and the parts used for the war effort. By the end of the war the jet engine had been invented and transatlantic passenger service soon was carried out with a reliability and speed that could not be matched by lighter-than-aircraft. Memories of the horror of the Hindenburg disaster lingered on, killing any future for the large, rigid, passenger airships.

The zeppelin, once thought to be the wave of the future, was suddenly a thing of the past. Copyright 2001-2013Lee Krystek. All Rights Reserved. 1000+ images about Hindenburg on Pinterest | Military officer, Smoking room and Explosions Pinterest • The world’s catalog of ideas Hindenburg The Hindenburg disaster took place on Thursday, May 6, 1937, as the German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station, which is located adjacent to the borough of Lakehurst, New Jersey. Of the 97 people on board (36 passengers, 61 crew), there were 35 fatalities; there was also one death among the ground crew.

108 Pins1.08k Followers This Day in Weather History: May 6th This Day in Weather History: May 6th Weather.gov > Aberdeen, SD > This Day in Weather History: May 6th Local and Regional Events: May 6, 1988: High winds produced blowing dust which reduced visibilities to less than one half mile in northeastern South Dakota. Wind gusts of 62 mph were reported at Aberdeen. A small building was destroyed in Gettysburg and a building was damaged near Timber Lake. Winds also blew over a tractor-trailer injuring a man in Okaton. May 6, 1999: High winds of 35 to 50 mph, gusting to over 60 mph blew across central and north central South Dakota from the early morning to the late evening hours causing some damage. In Pierre, the high winds blew a large tree down and tore loose a piece of the sheet metal cornice atop a downtown building. At the Legion Memorial Park in Mobridge, the high winds knocked the centerfield lights to the ground. In Jones County, a semi-tractor trailer was blown over and damaged.

A fishing tournament at Lake Oahe had to be postponed as a result of the high winds. Click HERE for daily climate information for Aberdeen, Mobridge, Pierre, Sisseton, and Watertown. Click HERE for daily climate information for Sioux Falls, Huron, Mitchell, and Sioux City. U.S.A and Global Events for May 6th: 1876: A tornado, estimated at F3 intensity, tracked four miles across Chicago, Illinois. The damaged buildings included a candy factory, a hospital, a freight depot, and a church. The tornado moved out over Lake Michigan and was observed to have multiple vortices by a reporter. Further south in Illinois, a tornado blew a moving passenger train off the tracks near Neoga, injuring all 19 people aboard. 1937: The German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast at Naval Air Station Lakehurst in Manchester Township, New Jersey, United States. Of the 97 people on board (36 passengers and 61 crewmen), there were 35 fatalities (13 passengers and 22 crewmen).

One worker on the ground was also killed, making a total of 36 deaths. The Hindenburg was delayed two hours from docking due to thunderstorms in the area. Click HERE for more information from the History Channel. The Zeppelin LZ 129 Hindenburg was catching fire on May 6, 1937, at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey. Aerial photo of the wreckage of the Hindenburg taken on May 7, 1937, the morning after the crash. Image from Wikipedia. 1975: A massive tornado hit Omaha, Nebraska killing three persons, injuring 133 others, and causing over 250 million dollars damage. The tornado struck during the late afternoon moving northeastward through the industrial and residential areas of west central Omaha and lifting over the northern section of the city. The twister, which cut a swath ten miles long and as much as a quarter of a mile wide. It was the most costly in U.S. history up till that time. Click HERE for more information from the NWS Office in Omaha, Nebraska. The photo of the Omaha Tornado above was taken near Aksarben (72nd and Mercy Rd.) by Bob Dunn.

The tornado track above is courtesy of the NWS Office in Omaha, Nebraska. Click HERE for more This Day in Weather History from the Southeast Regional Climate Center.

Question: The airship Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed on May 6th of which year?
Answer: 1937